Health insurance exchanges opened Tuesday as scheduled nationally to begin the process of enrolling the uninsured in Obamacare, even as the much of the rest of the federal government underwent a Congress-induced partial shutdown over the expansion of federal health insurance.

Though the health exchange websites designed to guide the uninsured to health insurance were live, they moved slowly.

Visitors to the Michigan portion of www.healthcare.gov shortly after 9 a.m. initially saw the following notice:

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"Health Insurance Marketplace: Please wait," and, "We have a lot of visitors on our site right now and we're working to make your experience here better. Please wait here until we send you to the login page. Thanks for your patience!"

Uninsured individuals have until Jan. 1 to enroll in health insurance or face a financial penalty some say will be preferred by many uninsured because it may be cheaper than health insurance premiums.

Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services rolled out a health insurance premium estimator designed to help people estimate their costs for four plans provided through 13 insurers allowed to offer health insurance in Michigan.

The DFIS estimates the average cost for a bronze plan, the lowest cost plan with the highest out-of-pocket costs, at $275 a month.

Obamacare requires qualified plans to offer 10 "essential" health benefits, and offers tax credits to offset the costs to individuals making less than $44,000 a year to a family of four earning less than $92,000 a year.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the rollout of Obamacare Tuesday coincides with a partial government shutdown with the Republican-led House and Democrat-run Senate at odds over appropriations to keep the government running.

The House wanted to tie a spending deal to measures delaying or defunding Obamacare, which the Senate refused.

The partial shutdown affects an estimated 800,000 federal employees but exempts "essential" personnel like the military.

Visitors to various federal department websites saw a variety of notices, or sometimes none at all.

State:
"In the event of a lapse in appropriations, the Department of State will continue passport and visa operations as well as provide critical services to U.S. citizens overseas."

Education:
"Thank you for visiting ED.gov. Due to a lack of appropriations effective October 1, ED activities have been curtailed and most employees are on furlough. ED.gov will not be updated during the shutdown. Updates will resume and ED will return to normal operations as soon as funding is restored."

Treasury:
"In the event of a government shutdown many pages and documents on the Department of the Treasury’s website, www.treasury.gov, will not be updated. However, the following areas will continue to receive regular updates:
Financial Sanctions, including the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List)
Financial Stability / FinancialStability.gov
Interest Rate Statistics
Investor Class Auction Allotments
Quarterly Refunding
Treasury International Capital System (TIC)
Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)
Office of Financial Research (OFR)
Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF)
State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI)"

Agriculture:
"Due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available. We sincerely regret this inconvenience. After funding has been restored, please allow some time for this website to become available again.
"To view U.S. Department of Agriculture Agency Contingency plans, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/contingency-plans"

Defense:
"Site updates are limited due to the government shutdown. Read DOD’s Special Report for the latest information."

Health and Human Services posted the following notice:
"We are experiencing a high volume of media requests about the Affordable Care Act and the Health Insurance Marketplaces. If you are a reporter, we have assembled these tools to help you:

"First try HealthCare.gov, which has comprehensive information about the Health Insurance Marketplace here.

"At the start of Open Enrollment, watch for media advisories for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' regular operational updates for reporters. The first update will be held as a conference call on the afternoon of Oct. 1. HHS will post transcripts of these briefings in the HHS Newsroom.

"Email our media team here. If you have already contacted CMS' media relations team, then HHS already has your request, and there is no need to email both agencies. Please be as specific as possible about your request and deadline."

About the Author

Charles Crumm covers politics for The Oakland Press. Read his Elections, Politics and Policy blog at http://oaklandmichiganpolitics.blogspot.com/. Reach the author at charlie.crumm@oakpress.com
or follow Charles on Twitter: @crummc.